Certain UPS services save time and money

United Parcel Service (UPS) transports packages each business day for 1.8 million customers. With two business acquisitions from 2001, the world's largest express carrier provides quicker, cheaper ways to send mail through the U.S. Postal Service.

When UPS acquired Mail2000, a Bethesda, Md., company, UPS expanded its sorting and delivering capabilities to include what is known in the postal industry as hybrid mail, or mail that is initially created in an electronic format, then rendered into a paper format.

Companies executing large-volume mailings - monthly billing statements, for instance - create electronic mail and transmit it to the Bethesda office of Mail2000, which then sorts each electronic letter and forwards it to a processing center close to the letter's final destination. There, the letter is printed and released into the U.S. Postal Service for delivery. This process cuts delivery time by 50 percent and can save up to 9 cents per letter over sending first-class mail strictly through the U.S. Postal Service.

Using a similar delivery system, Global Management Services, LCC (commonly known as RMX), based in Reno, Nev., a new subsidiary of UPS, is helping customers save time and money while managing their flow of flats, which are pieces of mail that are larger than a letter but smaller than a parcel.

RMX sorts flats by ZIP code, ships them close to their intended destination, and drops them into the U.S. postal system. RMX saves 15 percent to 30 percent in cost over sending flats solely through the Postal Service and reduces transit hours, making delivery time for flats comparable to that of first-class mail.

Even if your business doesn't send out mass mailings or post flats on a regular basis, you might be interested in a new pilot service, called UPS Presort. This is aimed directly at small- to mid-size businesses that do not dispatch enough mail to receive discounts on postage and typically send an employee to the post office each day to drop off the mail. With UPS Presort, which is currently being tested on a trial basis in Georgia, UPS drivers stop at participating businesses every afternoon to pick up all outgoing mail in addition to UPS packages.

Small business owners save time and money with UPS Presort because UPS consolidates all of the mail and transfers it to a sorting company that sorts it and then delivers it to the U.S. Postal Service. Because UPS aggregates the mail of many customers, the bulk is such that the customers qualify for postal discounts they would not normally be eligible for.

Although all three of these new services are part of the U.S. Postal Service's workshare programs - in which private sector companies create cost efficiencies by preparing and sorting mail - it is unlikely that UPS will enter into the physical delivery of first-class mail for the Postal Service.

According to Carla Radson, a transportation analyst at TransporTrends, a transportation consulting firm in New York City, "Direct delivery of mail is notorious as a money-losing proposition. As long as UPS continues to demonstrate real value to businesses - production efficiencies that lead to performance and lower rates - through these new presorting programs, the company would be crazy not to leave the physical delivery of mail in the government's hands."

If you are interested in the expedited delivery times and cost savings these programs offer, call UPS at (800) 811-1710 for additional information.